Polls close in 11 key midterm races with Senate control on the line

Polls are closing and the picture is coming into focus: 11 races are worth watching, and the Senate map is where the night gets decided. Democrats need 51 seats. Republicans need just 50 — because Vice President JD Vance holds the tie-breaking vote. Every one of these contests moves the math.

Start in Georgia, where incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff — already talked about as a future White House candidate — is tipped for a comfortable, possibly double-digit win over Republican Mike Collins. Now look at a race nobody expected to sweat: Republican Darline Graham, sister of the late senator Lindsey Graham, is locked in a toss-up against Annie Andrews in a state that normally votes red without thinking twice.

Ohio is the money race. Democrat Sherrod Brown, a former senator who ran the Senate banking committee from 2021 to 2024 and loudly disliked crypto, is up against Republican incumbent Jon Husted. AdImpact, which tracks political ad spending, says the crypto industry has poured $US68 million into beating Brown. In Maine, Republican incumbent Susan Collins has beaten bad polling before and won — but her net approval is ugly this time, and Troy Jackson is making her work for it.

Texas could flip a seat that has stayed red for decades: Democrat James Talarico is running hard on political corruption and trying to become the first Democrat sent to the US Senate from the state since 1988. His opponent is Republican Ken Paxton. In Kansas, no Democrat has won a Senate seat in 94 years — pastor Adam Hamilton wants to end that streak against Republican Roger Marshall.

Michigan is tight. Abdul El-Sayed — a doctor, unionist and Muslim — is battling Republican Mike Rogers for the seat Democrat Gary Peters is leaving open. Iowa offers a clean read on Trump's pull: Republican congresswoman Ashley Hinson against Democratic state legislator Josh Turek, in a cycle where Trump has asked voters to act as if he's on the ballot despite his weakened approval ratings.

Alaska is feeling the squeeze of surging heating fuel, electricity and grocery bills, and Democrat Mary Peltola says residents there pay the country's highest healthcare costs. She faces Republican senator Dan Sullivan — and an unaffiliated retired teacher who shares the name Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. One race stands out for pure bitterness: Republican Vivek Ramaswamy had to pull an attack ad after his campaign tracked down the estranged mother of Democratic rival Amy Acton, who called her daughter a serial liar who can't be trusted.